stats, romance in washington, and tossing the cookies

Good morning blogoblogs,

As promised, I'm going to post my updated QQ09 stats, though yes, they are a day later than I'd hoped.

I've been a little swamped helping everyone prep for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in Washington (which starts today, though most of my HQN people won't depart until tomorrow as we spend today putting the final touches on various presentations, etc) so yeah, my days have been busy as of late. "When are they not busy?" you ask? When everyone has finally left for Washinton, that's when! I plan to hit that slush pile hard.

In addition to being busy, I'm also very tired today. Last night, around 4am, I awoke to the sound of sweet little Oliver kitten retching in the living room (it wasn't very loud--I must just have an ear for kitty barf). I wonder what made him so sick?


Oh I see....

After cleaning up the multiple messes (he's a bit of a traveling cookie tosser) and steering him toward a large bowl of water, I headed back to bed only to find I was in that zone where I'd been awake just long enough that I was too awake to sleep and just hungry enough that my stomach began to growl. I'm not big on the idea of eating during the night. I'm convinced it will give me weird dreams or an upset stomach so I convinced myself to toss and turn through the growling stomach and around 5am, I finally fell back asleep only to find myself cursing at 6:45am when my alarm went off. On the upside, Oliver seemed to be back to his chipper snuggly self when I went to feed the kitties.

So yeah, Kate = tired, but still mildly glowing from her first FULL request!! Here are the stats:

Query Rejections: 20
Partial Requests: 6
Partial Rejections: 3
What's that? A new category, you say?
Full Requests: 1

Hooray! Let us all rejoice and dance and sing to celebrate this next milestone in my publishing journey! I know I will be celebrating with my family this weekend at the cottage.

One more thing before I sign off. Harlequin Teen has launched a new website to correspond with the imprint launch later this month. It's very shiny. Check it out.

fill er up!

Today I...received my very first FULL request! And it wasn't even from one of the partials I'm waiting on! More to come on this soon, but for now, can I just say YIIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE! ? I can? Ok, then YIIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! :)

Updated stats to come when I'm not exhausted from a crazy day at work followed by the extremely intense "I got a full request!" dance I did around the apartment tonight... Sorry folks, no pics of that :)

pom-pom hockey

Hello blogoverse,

Sorry for, yet again, taking too long a break between posts. I'm still in this waiting/holding pattern where I'm so anxious I want to chew my own hand off. Ok, maybe not (that would definitely involve an ick factor, plus I tend to need both my hands). Anyway, yeah, I'm somehow remaining somewhat patient as I wait and wait and have a heart attack every time there's new mail in my inbox. It's hard to remember the last time I ever wanted anything more than this.

Boyfriend has been in Germany for business over the past few days, which has been an odd experience--not because I'm on my own (boyfriend travels enough for work that I'm used to that), but because I kept thinking about how far away he was. When he's in Chicago for business, he doesn't feel that far away, but this felt different. I suppose it's probably due to the time zone thing. Either way, I'm not really a fan. I don't like to feel so out of touch. Happily, he comes home today! Yay!

Huntley and Oliver, les petites chats, will be turning two in a few weeks and their personalities seem to grow more and more endearing everyday (which seems impossible, but somehow, it happens). Here's Oliver taking a break from the mad, mad world:


And here's Huntley, enjoying the sink:


Those crazy kitties! Lately, Huntley has taken to a game I like to call pom-pom hockey. To understand how the game works, you have to know that Huntley is obsessed with the drawers in my dresser. I think the obsession began when she realized that whenever she loses a pom-pom (her toy of choice), it's because she's flicked it under the dresser and her mummy has to remove the drawers to get it back out. Now, whenever I open a drawer in my dresser (usually for the purpose of, you know, getting clothes out and NOT retrieving pom-poms), she comes running from wherever she is in the apartment and looks up at me expectantly, OR attempts to climb into the drawer I've opened (I'm not sure where this habit ties into the whole pom-pom thing. I think she just realized at some point that drawers, like boxes, are fun to sit in). Because of her fondness for the drawers being pulled out, I suspect she's taken to shooting the pom-poms under the dresser on purpose and now her favourite thing to do when I pull the drawers out is to climb into the empty space where the drawer was and knock the pom-poms back out herself. This is how pom-pom hockey was born.

The other day, Huntley was lying on her stomach pawing under the dresser, a sign that another pom-pom had gone missing. I pulled the drawer out and she instantly jumped into the empty space, flicking the pom-pom back at me. I flicked it back at her and she threw her paw out to block the shot and flick it back out at me. This continued on for about 10-15 minutes until Oliver woke up from his nap, came over to see what the commotion was all about, stole the pom-pom and ran into the living room with it, but Oliver's sneaky interception didn't put a damper on Huntley's playful spirit. The drawer thing has evolved into her wanting to play pom-pom hockey all the time, so when I pull the drawer out, she climbs in and sits, ready to play. I will get a picture of this eventually to share, but for now, you'll just have to imagine the cuteness.

If I could only get Oliver to join in the game somehow...they could take turns taking shots on goal while the other defends in true Canadian style :)


UPDATED to include pom-pom hockey action shots! (ok so not exactly "action", but you get the idea...)

series monogamist

Whenever someone would ask me if I preferred movies or scripted television, I would always answer TV. Many would balk at this answer, certain that TV was the "mac and cheese" of the two art forms, but I loved the endless possibilities for plot and character development as well as the promise of near-weekly installments.
Film, though certainly admirable in its own way, involves a lot of waiting for very little viewing time and even if it's a film that has a sequel, that's just another long wait, often followed by disappointment. Plus, liking TV better doesn't mean I don't like movies, it just means if I had to live in a world with one or the other, I'd go with TV. Scripted TV that is--if it could only be reality TV, I'd probably have to go with movies. You can only take so much Speidi before your brain implodes.

As I've gotten older, it's become harder and harder to keep up with certain shows I enjoy, but the advent of TV on DVD has opened a wonderful new world where I can not only catch up on things, but watch episode after episode for hours on end, which let's face it, is OMG THE BEST WAY TO WATCH TV!



You see, when I like a show, it's not enough to tune in casually. I have to see every. single. episode. I think this compulsion started with my X-Files obsession back in the day, which lead to my All Things Whedon obsession, Veronica Mars obsession (I still cry over that show being cancelled. VM will live on in my heart FOREVER!) and, with the advent of TV on DVD, all of this has now culminated in me being able to obsessively watch back-to-back episodes of shows for which I didn't get in on the ground floor (Mad Men, Dexter, Big Love, The Tudors--I know. What's wrong with me, right?)

Anyway, lately boyfriend and I have been compulsively watching The West Wing, which we both missed the first time around. It's really fun to watch something uninhibited by week-long, or even season-long, waits (though it is occasionally inhibited by a need for sleep/work), but it's also dangerous. Watching a show that has fully run its course means there are easily-accessed spoilers online about exactly how it's all going to end. I'm sad enough just knowing that Sam Seaborn isn't going to stick around (I heart you Rob Lowe!), I don't need to stumble across an old review about how everyone is killed off in the last season (if you haven't watched The West Wing, I made that last part up... I think.)



Committing to a completed series on DVD means also committing to not cheating on it by looking anything up online and sometimes, when you have a boyfriend who is out of town on business on a regular basis, effectively putting the marathon on hold, you start to wonder if it would be so bad to just sneak a peek at what's coming up in the next episode or so....

Or maybe I can just start another series for when he's not around. I'm hearing True Blood is quite check-out worthy. The only problem is, what happens after I've devoured every episode of that? Do I wait for more on a weekly basis like the rest of the world? How can you expect me to wait when I've become so accustomed to just skipping to the next episode? How did anyone ever manage this? You've ruined me TV on DVD. I hope you're happy.

fast and furious (without cars or lameness)

Quick QQ09 update because things have been moving. Since my last update I've received two more partial requests and a few more rejections so I wanted to update the stats! A more entertaining and informative post to come soon (possibly even later today, though I'm trying to avoid the computer screen today because my contact lenses are suffering from a severe case of wonk).

Query Rejections: 16
Partial Requests: 6
Partial Rejections: 3

So yes, assuming my math skills are correct, I currently have 3 partials out there awaiting judgement, and the agents who have them couldn't be more fantastic! I'm excited, but absolutely desperate for that coveted full request...

just like that

Yesterday, I was hoping that *something* (a full request from one of my partials maybe?) good would happen to put the wind back in my sails and sure enough, something did. I received my 4th partial request! Very exciting! I am still VERY anxiously waiting to hear back about my other two partials that are out there, but having my 4th partial request come in was a very nice treat.

So quickly, here are the latest standings:

Query Rejections: 14 (most encouraging!)
Partial Requests: 4
Partial Rejections: 1

Now am I just waiting for that elusive full request to add to the list.... (to be sung) Come on full request! I'm ready and waiting for yoooooouuuuuuuuu!

:)

again, i'm not lazy, just waiting

...and yeah, ok, a little lazy. And busy- the last couple of weeks (including weekends) have been pretty packed. I think things are slowing down though.

Still waiting on both partials. I wasn't really sure what to do about sending queries out while waiting on two partials, but after a two week break (during which I at least researched a whole slew of new agents to query), I decided to go ahead and send out four more queries today and I think I'll continue to take it slow from there.

I'm sort of freaking out because I realized I didn't put "Requested Materials" in the subject line of my partial so I think I'm going to send out a little status query soon just to make sure it didn't get lost in the sea of other query letters.

Continuing to keep fingers crossed like you wouldn't believe (I'm losing all feeling in my fingers... ) I promise I'll blog more when all this (particular) waiting is overwith and I don't feel so anxious all the time :)

happy belated b-day TLNTHC!

Many milestones to blog about this week.

First of all, I must wish my dear Chameleon (aka The Little Novel That Hopefully Can), a happy belated 1st birthday. It was on May 28th, 2008, as I lounged poolside at a resort in Cuba that the idea for Chameleon first came thundering into my brain. I couldn't write fast enough that day, not wanting to miss a single character detail or line of dialogue as certain scenes fell into place. We've come a long way my dear and I hope we continue on quite a ways more.

Secondly, I'm VERY excited to say that I've received my third partial request! Since I'm still waiting to hear back from dream agent #1 about my previous partial request, I now officially have two partials out in the world, trying their hardest to shine for two amazing agents. You go little partials! You can do it!

So here are the current QQ09 rankings:
Rejections: 12
Partial Requests: 3!!!
Partial Rejections: 1

I'm quite happy with these stats and I have to say, I've also moved into sort of a zen place when it comes to rejections, which is why today, I want to talk about a bit about my take on them and how it's changed with every one I've received.

I knew going into this process that I would be rejected. And no, I don't mean I knew in the way the dorkiest kid in school knows he'll be rejected by the most popular girl, but secretly hopes that movies don't lie and she'll fall for him anyway. I mean I knew because I work in publishing and I know how it goes and I know that every single one of my favourite authors have experienced rejection. I knew. I was ready. To an extent.

You see, though I was ready for the rejection itself, I wasn't really ready for the ensuing uncertainty. I thought that knowing meant I'd endure unscathed, but knowing you'll be rejected doesn't mean you can convince yourself to not take it personally. Even if you know you shouldn't, you do. At least at first. And, like I said, for me, it wasn't a matter of "I can't believe they rejected me" as much as it was a matter of, "Oh man, was I crazy to think anyone else would like this? What if I'm delusional? What if no agent is going to feel the same way about Brynn and co. as I do?"

But then the first request for a partial came and it was like a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the partial was (kindly and encouragingly) rejected the very next day and I felt like I was back at square one. It felt good that somebody took notice (and to know my query letter, on some level, worked), but it wasn't enough to stop me from questioning the worth of my writing.

And then more rejections came. Many were positive and kind, which made them easier to read, but nothing was calming my fears that the story I'd written just wasn't enough.

Then, when the second partial request came, things changed. Not only was the second partial request from one of the agents at the top of my list, it also served as a form of assurance that calmed me into a new way of thinking about rejection. That second partial request was like a second kiss. The first might have been impulsive, maybe even a fluke, but the second, oh, the second means something is right.

Since part of my job is to reject slush unfit for our imprints, I have a pretty good base knowledge of the varied reasons a manuscript might be rejected. Almost everything rejected at my level is either horrendously written or completely wrong for our programs. I think somewhere in my brain, I began to equate rejection with something that was completely off-target, a conclusion which couldn't have helped my uncertainty, but what I had to remember was that in my job, I send rejections on behalf of a major publisher to people who didn't bother to read submission guidelines and the stuff I reject is only a small fraction of what we receive so the reasons I reject projects don't really translate into the reasons why an agent rejects them.

If something in my slush pile looks decent, I can pass it along to an editor for a second opinion, and they can send it out to a freelancer for a reader's report, if it's positive, other editors will look at it, and eventually, it might work its way up the totem pole. If it's acquired, recognition doesn't really go to the person who found it in a slush pile. At that point, it sort of belongs to the publisher, a good find by the team, and if it fails, the publisher will endure.

While a publisher as large as the one I work for has a wide variety of editorial making its way through many editors and imprints, an agent is one person, who can and should only take on projects that really speak to them. At the end of the day, they have to put their personal reputation on the line for you and that's a huge favour to ask of anyone, let alone an essential stranger. Unlike the slush decisions I make, their rejections aren't based on "this doesn't work" or "this might work". Those two thoughts only mean rejection for an agent. "This might work" isn't enough. It has to be "This is brilliant. It speaks to me and I can't put it down!", which, let's face it, is really subjective. It's hard to feel bitter about a rejection when you start to understand that it's really not necessarily you, or your writing, it's the agent and his/her tastes, and availability/time, and whether or not they personally can go out on a limb for you, again, an essential stranger. Even if your book is amazing, they don't owe you anything. It's either there or it isn't and that has no influence over whether or not it will catch the eye of someone else.

So yeah, long story short, twelve query rejections (so far) don't have me down. If anything, they've brought me to this twelve rejection calm, where I'm over the initial uncertainties and I've settled in for the long haul. I have no plans to give up on something I've been working toward and dreaming of almost all my life. Sure, it's very likely that the rejection blues will drop by for a visit whenever a new rejection shows up in my inbox, but they won't be staying long. I won't let them. Feeling down is fine, but feeling bitter about rejection isn't fair to the book I've written, the agents I've queried, or me, and I have three partial requests to re-read if I need a reminder that my writing has worth.

Nobody said this would be easy and I've accepted that. I'm ready for whatever comes next.

Speaking of what comes next, I've been working on my WIP a lot lately and I'm pleased with the way things are going. Unlike Chameleon, my WIP is intended to stand alone (I don't want to start on Chameleon II until I know what's happening with it). I realize it's a bit odd to post an excerpt from my WIP when I haven't posted boo from Chameleon, but here's a little something from the openining (tentatively titled All That Comes After):


Lying in the freshly cut grass, he doesn't look like himself. His eyes are all wrong. The usual dark brown is clouded like a stream of milk trying to find its way through unstirred black coffee.
And they're so still, so peaceful; unmoving, unseeing, but somehow staring at the brilliant sun in a way the eyes of the living never could.
If we left him here, would the grass grow tall around him, covering his pale blue skin in brambles as it drinks up the water trailing from the corner of his mouth? Would he become one with the lawn, enabling him to stay forever near? I can't bear the thought of someone moving him. Can't fathom a world where we'd ever allow tall men in respectful suits to carry him away, while we return to a life without him. He isn't theirs to take.
I reach out a hand to trace two lines down his pallid face, my trembling fingers drawing across his eyelids, closing them, and he's transformed. Only sleeping. But no, he isn't sleeping. This isn't even him.
Here lies my brother's body, yet, he's nowhere to be seen.

i know, i know, i know

Yeah, I totally should have blogged by now, but I've been in this holding pattern, waiting to hear back about my latest partial request. This one is a big deal to me so I'm sort of pulling a radio-silence while I wait. Unfortunately, I feel it's going to be a long wait what with BEA coming up...I can't decide whether long waits make the rejection sting more or less.

I'm scared to even think about the outcome of this one. I know my heart will burst with excitement if the agent asks for a full, but I somehow have to put that hope aside and prepare myself for the far more likely possibility that she'll reject me. So anyway, yeah, I don't want to say too much while I wait, lest I ramble myself into a too-hopeful corner.

That said, I should update my QQ09 stats since I'm now at 10 query rejections (11 if you include my first partial rejection, which I suppose I should, though I see it as an accomplishment so it feels wrong to count it in my rejection tally.)

I've started mapping, re-writing my current WIP, which is something I'd started a few years ago, but I've only recently decided how to breathe new life into it. The approach I'm currently taking feels much better than how I'd gone at it before. I'm hoping this one will keep me distracted as I wait and try to remember that how this agent responds to Chameleon is out of my hands now. I just have to hope she likes it and not worry myself. I can't do anything to force it. All I can do is hope, pray, make deals with the devil...ok, maybe not.

I'll hopefully update again soon. This waiting will undoutedly make me squirrely.

they should bottle this stuff and sell it

New post! (as promised)

First off, I am reaching ridiculous levels of uber-excitement because I just received a request for a partial from one of my absolute top agents! I pretty much read the email and then went off like a rocket, dancing around with joy. Then the small part of my brain that reminds me to not get my hopes up kicked in and composed myself enough to reply with said partial attached. Now I wait and no, I'm not going to get my hopes up, but yeah, I am going to cross my my fingers and daydream, and pray, and maybe sacrifice a virgin daiquiri (or maybe a non-virgin daiquiri... it is a long weekend after all).

Ok, so here are the current stats:

Rejections: 7
Partial Requests: 2!!!!!
Partial Rejections: 1

Not a bad ratio if I do say so myself.

So anyway, this news is extra amazing because it came to me on my first half-Friday of the summer (ah, summer hours, how I love thee) and we got free hot breakfast and birthday cake at work this morning! Pretty good day all around, yeah? Yeah, and it only gets better because it's the beginning of what is going to be a great long weekend. Tomorrow both of my sisters and my brother-in-law are coming to visit (always a good time) and then on Sunday, boyfriend and I are headed up to the cottage until Monday. I'm was looking forward to this and the added happiness over this partial request just sweetens the pot.

I suppose I didn't get around to blogging about last weekend. Boyfriend and I had a wonderful time in Niagara Falls. We had gorgeous weather the day we went and there were rainbows all over the place (so girly and pretty!). We had a very nice dinner and then headed back home in time to visit the parents for mother's day/my dad's birthday (which always falls near mother's day weekend).

Work has been busy this week as I got back into the swing of things after my leisurely weekend, but I still took some time to make some revisions to Chameleon and start mapping out my WIP. (Gah, I hope those revisions pay off!)

Been watching finales of all my fav show this week- LOST left me a little heartbroken, but The Office healed said wounds with Jimtastic smiles. I didn't think that guy could act any more adorably. Sigh. What a great season ender.

Aright, that's enough of an update for now. The partial request excitement is flowing through my veins and I just can't sit still :) Also, my kitties are wrestling in the next room and from the sounds of it, things are getting knocked over. I should probably put an end to that...

bad blogger!

I know, I know. I need to blog again soon and I will! I promise! I've been so busy catching up after my anniversary long weekend that I haven't had the time to ogranize my bloggy thoughts, but I promise something soon- hopefully tomorrow if not Friday.

I suppose the least I can do is a QQ09 update:
Rejections: 7
Partial Requests: 1
Partial Rejections: 1

That's right, all of my current hopes are resting on the shoulders of the 6 agents who still haven't responded to my initial query (including 2 agents from my first round of queries! *CROSSES FINGERS*)

More to come...

QQ09 downdate

I decided to call it a downdate instead of an update because it's bad news. Well, it's not bad, it's just disappointing, but it's not unexpected and it's not the end of the world.

My partial was rejected. Yes, almost as quickly as it came, my hopeful happy dance has left me. It's ok though, I know that like the flat-out query rejections before it, this is all part of the process.

And I now know I'm on the right track. My query letter got an agent's attention and even as I continue to receive rejections, nobody can take that away from me. I can hang onto it and reread that request for a partial whenever I need to be reminded that I WILL get Chameleon published, it's just a matter of time.

Here's hoping one of the other eight queries I currently have out there comes back with positive news.

As a positive PS to this post, agent Rachelle Gardner held a little writing contest recently on her blog and she chose my 150 word piece about how the publishing journey is like LOST as one of her seven favourites. After that, readers voted on the winner and well, when reader participation is involved, you never know what will happen. I ended up in third place, which is totally cool with me. I was just happy to be nominated :)

happy milestone time!

Quick Query Quest 2009 Update!

Rejections: 5
Partial Requests: 1!!!!

That's right! A real, honest to God agent requested a partial!!! I'm beyond thrilled to know an agent (and one of my top picks at that!) is reading about Brynn and co. and their various adventures.

Must not get hopes up. Must not get hopes up. Hopes up or not, my first partial is a serious milestone and I think that's worth smiling about :)

queries, revisions and falls, oh my!

The week is off to a much slower start than last week, which is nice because I'm finally catching up on some work that had been put aside in the author summit insanity. I'm also happy to say it's only a four day work week for me because I'm taking Friday off to go to Niagara Falls for the fourth anniversary of boyfriend and I dating. (Actually, next week and the week after that are both four day weeks as well--hooray!) We'll be staying in a very swank room here:


Jealous? I know I am! Wait, what? Anyway, yeah, it's gonna be a blast as long as the weather holds up. Right now they're calling for sun and scattered showers. I can deal with that.

Query Quest 2009, as I've decided to dub it, has entered into its fourth week. I'm still sitting at four rejections, but now have about 7-8 queries out in the world waiting to be responded to. (Wait, four weeks of queries, four rejections, four day work week, and four years of dating with boyfriend....weird. Maybe I should buy four lottery tickets, each laced with 4s. Or maybe I should focus on finishing this post...)

I sent out two more little queries today and made an effort to revise my letter a bit in case it has something to do with the rejections I've received so far. I think the revisions help the query to represent the story a little better. At least, I hope so. I keep going back and forth between a calm reserved patience and a nervous bundle of anxiety attacks. I deal with this by telling myself that worrying or wondering won't cause anything to happen. I just have to keep going. Despite flip-flopping on the issue, I've restrained from sending out too many queries at one time. I want to have multiple requests out there, but not so many that I start to lose track or would have dozens of agents to get in touch with should an offer come my way (I also want the option to keep revising my letter if it isn't working). Originally, I was hoping to send out more queries every time I received a rejection, but since the replies, rejection or otherwise, are slow to arrive, I'm instead sending out a few more every week or so. I'm convinced that eventually the right agent for me will receive my letter and declare: "INGENIOUS! I MUST REQUEST A FULL FROM THIS A-MAZING YOUNG TALENT! HER STORY WILL CHANGE THE FACE OF YA AS WE KNOW IT!" Too much? :)

I hope to have more updates on the whole Query Quest 2009 soon, but for now, I wait, and you wait along with me, and I try my best to not blog about waiting over and over again. Man, something interesting had better happen soon or this blog is gonna get really boring, really fast... I apologize in advance if it comes to that :)

(must think of diversion from depressing turn this has taken...)

Hey, what's that over there?!


Yeah, I dunno. This is what happens when you google "adorable yorkie". I have NO idea what that frog has to do with this, and upon further inspection of the website this came from, I see that this pup isn't even a true yorkie. It's a yorkie poo, which also according to the site, ISN'T a yorkie that has an unfortunate need for frequent trips to the little puppies' room.

What happened to this blog post? I swear it started out somewhere respectable, didn't it?

No?

Fine, I give up.

parchment? i'll stick to my stone tablet thank you.

A longer blog post was promised and here it is!

This week got off to a hectic start with an author summit taking place here in the Toronto headquarters of Harlequin. When one of our top authors comes to visit, it's a pretty big deal so there's a lot of work to be done both in preparation for the author's arrival as well as on the day of the actual summit. For assistants like myself, that means decorating boardrooms, making reservations, organizing catering, book signings, running errands for editors and top execs, serving, cleaning up and pretty much doing everything else in between. Oh, plus all of my usual work. It all adds up to a couple of really exhausting days that at least fly by pretty quickly and at the end of it all, I can't really complain because it usually means I get to meet some very cool people and add to my collection of autographed books. At any rate, I'm happy to announce that things have slowed down, which means I can catch up on some work and ease myself into the weekend.

Boyfriend and I recently purchased a wii fit, which I've been using on a daily basis despite my aforementioned exhaustion. I have to say, Nintendo have really done a good job with the wii fit. I'm amazed by how far "video games" have come (mostly due to the inventiveness of companies like Nintendo). The combination of exercise and games makes working out sooo much more enjoyable for people like me who hate going to the gym, but need some sort of routine along with someone (the wii fit itself in this case) to hold them accountable when they get lazy. I highly recommend it to anyone who knows they should exercise more, but just can't find the motivation.

The main topic of today's post is something I've wanted to comment on for a while, but I didn't quite have my thoughts organized on the subject until now (if even now). Every now and then, someone in the editorial department will forward along an article of interest regarding the publishing industry (usually focusing on some trend that's hot at the moment). Lately, a lot of articles about e-readers have been making the rounds and they've got me thinking about the pros and cons of e-readers and whether or not I should put any stock into the fear that books as we know them will one day be a thing of the past.

The article that finally inspired me to blog about this can be found here. It's a good read.

As for me, I still haven't completely made up my mind about e-readers, but here are some of the thoughts that occurred to me as I was reading this article:

E-readers are convenient--that can't be denied, and convenience has a long history of extinguishing older forms of media. The other benefits are obvious: e-readers save paper, you can carry your entire library around when you travel, and you can get your hands on the latest book by your favourite author at the click of a button, but are those benefits enough to eventually wipe out books completely?

I personally don't think so. At least not yet. I think that books still have a lot to offer that e-readers can't quite replace, which ironically leads me to my first point: replaceability.

Say you're on vacation, somewhere warm with a gorgeous white sandy beach. I love reading on the beach as do many people (they don't call them "beach reads" for nothing). It's relaxing and enjoyable and I can get lost in a wonderful story while working on my tan. But what happens when I get the urge to cool off by taking a dip in the water? Normally, I'd toss my reasonably priced paperback in my beach bag, and run for the waves, but I'm not sure I'd be so eager to leave my $300+ e-reader lying around. If some beach-klepto came along and swiped my copy of Twilight, I'd be pretty annoyed, but it wouldn't be too costly to replace. If I returned from my salty frolic to find my uber-expensive e-reader missing...well, I think you can figure it out. Long story short, books, for the most part, are easily replaceable, e-readers are costly and until they can produce an e-reader that costs around $50, books will continue to be the safe alternative for public reading.

Furthermore, I don't want to lose things like gorgeous book covers, that wonderful book smell, or the silent book club that is being able to identify what someone else is reading on the subway (a natural form of book marketing many authors benefit from). These things are an important part of my experience as an avid reader. I don't want to have to rely on a battery to keep reading and I really don't want to think about the impact e-readers could have on the public library system.

I do think that e-readers have their applications. They're very handy for things like reference books, travel guides, news media and other subscriptions. At my work, they're used for reading manuscripts that aren't in book form yet and as I mentioned above, it saves a lot of paper. But what about art books, coffee table books, children's books, or anything that benefits from the glory of full-colour illustrations? What about the connection between the reader and the page? Will an electronic medium distance us too much to fall in love with books the way we have in the past? Can anything be classified a classic on a technologically advanced screen?

Maybe I'm delusional for thinking e-readers can't replace books (I'm sure there was a time when nobody believed the use of stone tablets would be eclipsed), but as far as the near future goes, I only see them becoming a compliment to the way things are currently. An option. Like audio books (which I'm a fan of by the way, though I should note that I own physical copies of almost all of the audio books on my ipod--I see the book price as the cost of the story and the audio book price as the cost of having someone as enthralling as Stephen Fry read it to me on the subway). I don't know what will happen down the road as the e-reader market expands, the units themselves become undoubtedly cheaper and the available options become more appealing (full-colour screen to display gorgeous covers plus week-long battery life?), but I do know that even if I make the decision to purchase an e-reader for myself one day, I will always still want books and lots of them.